About the Author

Anne-Laure Broeks

Anne-Laure Broeks obtained her master’s degree in international business law in France. Upon completing her studies, she worked as legal counsel in France, the United States and Canada, where she gained extensive experience in business law. She consults on various legal IT projects across Canada and the United States, and is currently a legal consultant with Legal Suite (www.legal-suite.com), a company providing legal management software to help in-house counsel keep on top of their day-to-day activities, including contract, litigation, intellectual property and corporate entities management, among other areas.

Article List

In 2010 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered a major decision that has since been the subject of extensive discussions (Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd and Akcros Chemicals Ltd v. European Commission).

There was a time when maintaining legal privilege in attorney-client communications was somewhat easy: communications were either oral or written by exchanging letters directed to a specific recipient at a physical address.

Under most common law theories of evidence, legal privilege can be broadly defined as the right to refuse to disclose, or to prevent another person from disclosing, confidential information exchanged between a client and his or her attorney.